Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi became the second minister to publicly visit Saudi Arabia on Monday, as part of an Israeli delegation to the Universal Postal Union’s 2023 Extraordinary Congress in Riyadh.
Mr Karhi's trip, which was confirmed by his ministry, comes only days after Tourism Minister Haim Katz made the first official visit to the kingdom by a member of an Israeli government.
Mr Karhi will address the congress on Wednesday.
The visits follow Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's comments during an interview with Fox News that Riyadh was "getting closer" to establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.
Saudi Arabia last week sent a delegation to the Israel-occupied West Bank for the first time in three decades in a bid to reassure the Palestinians ahead of any prospective agreement.
Israel established relations with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco under the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020. Washington, which is also mediating in the potential agreement with Saudi Arabia, on Friday said a preliminary framework had been set up.
"All sides have hammered out, I think, a basic framework for what, you know, what we might be able to drive at," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. "But, as in any complex arrangement, as this will inevitably be, everybody is going to have to do something. And everybody is going to have to compromise on some things."
Saudi Arabia has been seeking security guarantees, including a defence pact with the US, in return for establishing ties with Israel, a source from the Saudi Foreign Ministry confirmed.
Analysts who spoke to The National said Saudi Arabia was willing to continue negotiations in the long-term to get the best possible deal.
“I think if we are planning to open up and have some relation with Israel, it's going to be structured,” Saudi analyst Ahmed Alibrahim said. "So, it's going to be more intense when it comes to brokering the deal.
But Saudi-Israeli talks face a series of issues to be resolved – particularly Saudi Arabia's commitment to being as fair to the Palestinians as possible, based on a two-state solution and the Arab Peace Initiative that Riyadh proposed during the Arab Summit in Beirut in 2002.
“For us, the Palestinian issue is very important. We need to solve that part,” Prince Mohammed told Fox News.
Prince Mohammed denied reports that Riyadh was putting the talks on hold because Israel’s right-wing government was unwilling to offer any concessions to the Palestinians, and said the negotiations were "serious".
“We've got to see where we go. We hope that will reach a place, that it will ease the life of the Palestinians, get Israel as a player in the Middle East,” he said.
Iran, which recently restored ties with Saudi Arabia after a gap of seven years, has been critical of agreements between countries in the region and Israel.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said such attempts to establish ties with its arch enemy Israel were "reactionary and regressive".
"Normalising relations with the Zionist regime is a reactionary and regressive move by any government in the Islamic world," Mr Raisi said during an international Islamic conference held in Tehran.
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How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now
Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.
The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.
1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):
a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33
b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.
2. For those who have worked more than five years
c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.
Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.
The Farewell
Director: Lulu Wang
Stars: Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen, Diana Lin, Tzi Ma
Four stars
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
MATCH INFO
World Cup qualifier
Thailand 2 (Dangda 26', Panya 51')
UAE 1 (Mabkhout 45 2')
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
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Transmission: 8-speed auto
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
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The biog
Name: Mohammed Imtiaz
From: Gujranwala, Pakistan
Arrived in the UAE: 1976
Favourite clothes to make: Suit
Cost of a hand-made suit: From Dh550
What is a robo-adviser?
Robo-advisers use an online sign-up process to gauge an investor’s risk tolerance by feeding information such as their age, income, saving goals and investment history into an algorithm, which then assigns them an investment portfolio, ranging from more conservative to higher risk ones.
These portfolios are made up of exchange traded funds (ETFs) with exposure to indices such as US and global equities, fixed-income products like bonds, though exposure to real estate, commodity ETFs or gold is also possible.
Investing in ETFs allows robo-advisers to offer fees far lower than traditional investments, such as actively managed mutual funds bought through a bank or broker. Investors can buy ETFs directly via a brokerage, but with robo-advisers they benefit from investment portfolios matched to their risk tolerance as well as being user friendly.
Many robo-advisers charge what are called wrap fees, meaning there are no additional fees such as subscription or withdrawal fees, success fees or fees for rebalancing.
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